WildMind Deep Ecopsychology
Initiating Generative Change at the Confluence of Nature, Psyche & Culture
Welcome, and thank you for taking a moment of your precious time to check out my emerging Substack.
The American poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser said “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms”.
I say… “The world is made of atoms, created by stories & defined by action”.
It reminds me that we are matter, and we are consciousness, but until we act, we are unable to create or derive meaning from either.
I can only hope Muriel would approve.
Atoms & Stories is a place for me to articulate, share, digest and metabolise some of the experiences I’ve had whilst working as a psychotherapist, a group facilitator, an organisational coach and consultant, a teenage boys mentoring / rites of passage non-profit founder and wilderness initiatory rites guide, which I call a Deep Nature Immersion.
All of these professional experiences are rooted somehow in my personal biography, the potentially useful facets of which I hope to gently weave into the mix.
These experiences, plus a good chunk of time studying, travelling and living in wild, semi-wild, and denuded places, as well as a dose of city life are metabolising into what I call ‘WildMind Deep Ecopsychology’.
It’s my take on how and why our personal and collective atoms & stories constellate and evolve on this intimate journey across time and space sharing a finite, and profoundly mysterious and beautiful planet.
Because yes - we live on a fucking planet! I’m not sure i’ll ever get over it. I’m not sure I want to.
Paul.
PS - Born in London (Gen X), initially studied & worked in engineering, then IT, then psychology. I took a two-year hiatus to travel & returned to transition into executive coaching, training organisations in applied psychology/communication & conflict, which evolved into psychotherapy & depth psychology by way of Jung, mythology, generative & systemic trance (3rd generation hypnosis/extraordinary states), & then working with C-PTSD & PTSD, alongside entering the world of men’s work & founding a non-profit took its toll.
I moved to Scotland 10 years ago & consulted for several major rewilding organisations (see ‘Planting a vision - The Guardian’). I now live in the inner Hebrides, where alongside my work, I bike, hike, climb, paddle, swim & take my camera if have time.
